Dragon Girl
by lemonygoodness1998
Summary: Jess has grown up with a film entitled Spirited Away, so when her family decides to take a tour of an abandoned theme park in rural Japan, everything seems eerily familiar. What happens When her parents and the rest of the tourists are turned to pigs? And is this mysterious boy with dark green hair really who she thinks he is?
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

"Come on, Jess. Just a peek," she promised. My mother and father stood just before an old tunnel entrance, me close behind them. I sat on an oddly-shaped stone pillar and refused to go in.

"I've seen this before, mom," I said and shook my head. "This is exactly what happened in _Spirited_ Away."

"We're not getting turned into pigs, Jess," my father sighed. "Grow up already."

When my family suggested we vacation in rural Japan I had jumped at the chance; maybe we could swing by Tokyo, or even just spend time alone in the countryside. But, as fate would have it, my overly organized parents had already planned out everything we would do down to the last minute before the flight home. And one of those planned things just so happened to be a guided tour of an abandoned theme park.

"The group is leaving us, sweetie," my mother groaned. "Let's get going before we get left behind." I ground my teeth and closed my eyes, then got up to follow them through the tunnel.

"That's the spirit," my father said and clapped me on the back. I almost made a pun about spirits, but thought better of family was extremely rational. When we emerged on the other side of the tunnel the tour group was waiting for us. The guide was, from what little Japanese I could understand, explaining the history of the old theme park as we stood in the middle of an entrance, benches lining either side of several pillars. Then the guide motioned for us to come outside into the meadow; as I walked to the entryway I noticed a birdbath illuminated by light shining through a multicolored window. I gulped.

The meadow was beautiful. Several random boulders were scattered throughout tall, waving grass, and a few small buildings graced the hilltops. In the distance was a small outcropping of trees; beyond that, a small outcropping of buildings. All my breath left me as I watched little rings of smoke curl up from a building's chimney.

"Jess!" My mother stood atop one of the knolls and waved her arm wildly to call me over to her. "We're gonna go to that little village to see what's going on!"

I rapidly shook my head. "Absolutely not," I said. "This is way too familiar. Let's just leave."

"Jess," my father warned. "What have we told you about your little fantasies?"

"'They have no place in real life, so they have no place with you.'" I recited it from memory.

"Darrel, let the girl dream," my mother said, laying a hand on my father's chest. "She needs an imagination. Think of all the things we couldn't do because we lacked one." He huffed and turned away, beginning the trek to the buildings and leaving my mother and me alone.

"Come on," my mother said gently as she took my hand. She guided me up to the rest of the group, which was just cresting the top of the first hill.

"It looks like they were going to put a river here." My father referred to the great snake of stones that wound its way through the meadow and across our path. I was careful not to slip and get my foot caught in between the boulders as one of the tourists in front of me had done. "They must have never gotten around to it."

As we approached the buildings I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There was a tingling in the air, like the crackling of lightning before it strikes. The buildings themselves were intriguing. All plaster stones with crumbling facades, all painted bright colors, all with lights strung from wall to wall, all restaurants. The tour guide led us to a place where mounds of meat and vegetables and other things I couldn't identify overflowed from heaping platters. The guide instructed us to dig in, the food was on her today. The tourists, including my parents, happily rushed to the delicious-smelling food and began to pile plates tall with foreign foods. I rushed to my mother.

"Mom, don't." I placed my hand over her plate before she could place another dumpling on it.

"Jess, it's okay," she assured me with a smile. "It's just a movie."

"Can't you feel it?" She didn't seem to understand. "The electricity in the air? Something's not right here."

"Don't tell me you're starting up on your fantasies again," my father snorted. I clenched my fists.

"I'm not necessarily talking about fantasies," I said slowly. "I'm just saying that I have a bad feeling about this place. I want to go back to the hotel."

"And miss out on a Japanese buffet? No way in hell, little girl," he laughed. I wanted to punch him.

My parents sat on stools alongside the other people on the tour and broke apart their chopsticks before tucking into the food they had dished onto their plates. Even though the food smelled wonderful, I felt sick. The tingle in the air had only gotten stronger as the afternoon was beginning to slip into evening. I had a horrible feeling about what was to come.

_But maybe they're right,_ I thought. It is only a movie. It's not like it's based on true events.

I looked back to where my parents were stuffing their faces. I decided to leave them to it while I explored other areas of the village.

As I wound deeper into the village I noticed that every building was a restaurant, and every storefront was decorated with the same huge spreads of food. The sun slipped lower and lower behind the distant hills, and I tried to feel at peace. It was sundown, my favorite time of day, between light and dark, with the sun's rays still thrusting orange and pink spikes into the sky but dimming by the second. I really should have felt peaceful, as there wasn't a soul around besides myself, but that electric tingle wouldn't let up, and my stomach muscles were so clenched I thought they might fuse with my spine.

Eventually I reached a wide staircase that led to what appeared to be a large paper lantern stretched across a red base. I didn't recognize the character printed across the paper, but the hairs on my arms stood up nonetheless. Climbing up the steps I looked out to the horizon; I was terrified as to what I would see if I looked straight in front of me. If I saw nothing but a river, or more hills, or even more endless rows of restaurants I would be fine. But something told me I was not going to see a river, or hills, or restaurants. I turned my head.

I faced a bathhouse.

I almost threw up right there. I was about to pass out when a noise roused me. A small intake of breath had sounded behind me.

"You shouldn't be here," a boy's voice said. I whipped around.

"Oh, fuck."

"You need to get out of here, now!" He wore traditional Japanese garments, with green eyes and dark black-green hair complimenting his pale skin.

"There are others," I managed to choke out. His eyes widened.

"There are more of you?" I nodded dumbly.

"Fourteen others. Eating the food."

"Oh, gods," he said quietly. Then his face hardened and he resumed his commanding tone. "Run. Run as fast as you can and as far towards the tunnel as you can," he commanded me. "Hurry, before it gets dark."

"Absolutely."

I took off down the road, not stopping for anything, not even when I began to notice the blobby black figures beginning to fade in in the restaurants, not even when I almost ran straight through one of them. When I reached the restaurant my parents were at, I screeched around the corner, nearly falling as I did so, to try and drag them back. Everyone had turned to a pig. Everyone but my parents. My parents seemed to be in the middle of turning into them, but I didn't care. I raced to them and yanked them from their seats and began to drag them through the street with a strength I didn't know I possessed.

"Maybe if they just stop eating," I thought. "Maybe if they would just stop eating they'll change back." I hoped for it with everything I had, but, somehow, I knew that wouldn't be the case.

They dug ruts into the ground where I pulled them through the dirt. I looked over my shoulder to check on them only to see that their faces were now completely pig-like and their hair had disappeared. My mother – if I could still call her that – still wore her earrings through her pig ears, a fact I would've found humorous were I not freaking the fuck out.

Another reason to freak out was that, as I had anticipated, the meadow had flooded. My parents scrabbled against my grasp and finally broke free of me as I became see-through, turning to pigs completely and running off back into the row of restaurants, presumably to find more food to rummage through.

I knelt down before the water and tried to make ripples. I couldn't.

I raced with inhuman speed to the back of an old building when I saw the ship dock at the edge of the former meadow. The paper-headed spirits began to file from the doors of the boat and off via a ramp that had been laid out across the grass and onto the cobblestoned street. I thought I saw one of them look my way, and I quickly ducked lower into my hiding place.

I was becoming more and more transparent as the seconds ticked past. I knew from the film that I needed to eat something from this world in order to stay alive, but Chihiro had gotten that berry from Haku. The boy, if he was Haku, would be busy with the fourteen pigs racing through the streets of the Spirit World and going on a food-crazed rampage. If I wanted to stay solid I was going to have to get some food for myself. I silently crept to the edge of the street, using the edge of the building to cover me as I debated my next moves. Then, dashing like a tornado to the other side of the street I snagged part of a chicken and tore down the cobblestoned path. I heard several voices screaming about a human and the heavy footsteps of spirits pursuing me around every corner I turned. I yelled over my shoulder.

"I don't want me to be here either!"

I broke off into a full-blown gallop. As I ran I choked down part of the chicken and threw the rest away, resisting the urge to gorge myself on the rest. I knew that was the quickest way to becoming an animal in any world, most especially this one. As I darted down the street like a screaming bullet I felt someone else's presence beside me. Looking to the left I saw the boy, his chin-length hair flying wildly behind him as he ran at my side.

"You eat anything?" he asked over the roar of the wind and of the crowd.

"Yeah."

"Good. You'll dis-"

"-Disappear without food from this world. I got it." He looked at me with thinly-veiled astonishment.

"How did you know?"

"Other than I could see through myself?" I asked shortly. He led me around a corner and down another staircase. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Not now! I'm a little busy running for my-"

I was stopped short by something heavy slamming into my gut.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Haku's POV

Someone flung a chair into her stomach, knocking her to the ground in the process. The spirit in question walked up to us and towered threateningly over her prone form.

"It's against the law to steal here, little human," he sneered maliciously, fully prepared to bash the chair against her abdomen until she died from internal bleeding.

"_Stop_," I commanded, placing a hand in front of the spirit's chest. "She hasn't done anything wrong."

"She stole from my restaurant!"

"In order to stay alive," I finished. "Who among us wouldn't do whatever it takes to survive?"

"We're spirits, Haku," he spat. "We don't necessarily have survival to worry about."

"Well, she does," I said, offering her my hand to help her up. She just shook her head and got up on her own. "And she is here of no fault of her own."

"She led all those other humans here!" a spirit called from the crowd that had gathered around the scene.

"_False_," the girl pretended to cough into her fist.

"Disrespectful little human! She's nothing like the other girl." I bristled at the mention of her. The girl beside whom I currently stood shot me worried glance; who she was worried about, me or herself, I wasn't sure.

"You're only defending her because she reminds you of that other girl!" I froze. Then she spoke.

"You know," she began, "there are a lot of nasty things in the human world."

"Like you?" the chair-throwing spirit spat at her, leaning down mockingly to her level. She only smirked.

"I was more referring to things like hitmen, mercenaries, murderers, robbers, you name it. Now whether I'm one of those nasty things… that's up to interpretation." The spirit gulped and took a surreptitious step back when he noticed her dark and hardened eyes.

"Is that a threat, little girl?" he asked, trying to remain unintimidated while slowly retreating.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The question you have to ask yourself is if you're really willing to find out."

After staring menacingly at each other for several seconds, the spirit eventually backed down and stepped back with a swallow. The girl turned back to me, some hardness still evident in her eyes.

"What comes next?" she asked me. Before I could answer, a loud noise interrupted me. Looking back, we saw a horde of spirits charging us. The leader suddenly screeched to a halt and pointed in her direction.

"There's the human!" he shouted, a cry echoed by the throng as they charged once again.

"Time to run?" the girl beside me asked quietly.

"Time to _fly_."

I grabbed her hand and took off, weaving between the legs of the spirits who roamed the streets each night. The women laughed and screeched as the wind we generated billowed their skirts around their thighs and threatened to expose their more private areas.

"Care to tell me how you know everything about the Spirit World?" I shouted above the noise. She shook her head.

"I already told you that you wouldn't believe me!"

We eventually wound our way across the bridge and to the bathhouse's side yard and crouched behind a bush.

"The meadow's flooded," she said. "I can't get back."

"I know. It happens every night." She was silent for a moment, looking down at her bent knees and splayed feet.

"How am I supposed to save my parents?" she whispered incredulously, as if she couldn't believe any of this was actually happening. I did not blame her.

"You can start by getting a job at the bathhouse," I told her. "If you don't work Yubaba will turn you into an animal."

"Yubaba?"

"She runs-"

"The bathhouse, I know," she said, looking down with furrowed brows.

"How do you know all these things?" She looked up with a humorless laugh.

"This will make the third time I've told you that-"

"I wouldn't believe you if you told me," I finished. "And this will make the second time I've told you to try me."

She took a deep breath and let it out, closing her eyes to steel herself before smiling grimly.

"Where I come from," she said, "you are a fictional character."


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Jess's POV

His eyes widened.

"There are books about…" he trailed. Judging from the shouts of "Master Haku!" coming from the bathhouse I didn't have enough time to explain the concept of a movie, so I just nodded my head.

"There is a book about this place, and about the bathhouse, and about Yubaba, and about you…" I swallowed. "And about Chihiro." A sharp intake of breath indicated that he had heard me.

"Is that why you defended me?" he asked quietly.

"I know you loved her," I said. His eyes steeled. "I didn't want you to hurt too much."

"There is no love in the Spirit World," he said.

"I always thought it was different," I said. "I never thought there was love in the human world, but there was in the Spirit World."

He ground his teeth together and looked away.

"If you've read this book then I assume you know who Kamaji is." I nodded. "You need to find him in the boiler room and ask him for work. He'll direct you to Yubaba."

"Okay." Haku stood up and looked back at me.

"Whatever you do," he said, "don't make a sound."

I nodded to show I understood, and he walked into the bathhouse.

"Master Haku!" a frog exclaimed. "There are reports of another human with you!"

"They're true," he said. The frog picked up the sandals the boy had left and closed the door.

The moment the door slammed shut I scrambled to the back gate and forced myself through it. When that gate shut I quietly ran down the stairs until I reached the green boiler room door. I pulled it creakingly open and entered the steam-filled foyer to the room, where a jumble of steaming copper pipes twisted along the walls. Kamaji's six-armed shadow danced on the opposite wall in firelight of the boiler as a horde of little soot-spirits brought lumps of coal to toss in the fire. I gulped.

One thing about me: I had extreme, psychiatrist-diagnosed social anxiety. I felt like I was going to throw up if I even so much as approached the man. The anxiety doubled when I stepped into the little well in the floor where the soot-spirits worked.

"Excuse me, sir," I said quietly. Kamaji made an odd "aengh," sound and took a drink from his kettle, not even acknowledging my presence. "Excuse me!" I called over the din of coal clinking against the boiler. This time the man looked at me.

"What do you want, human?" he called.

"It's not a matter of what I want! It's a matter of what I need!"

He seemed to like that answer, because he clanked his wooden mallet against the side of his perch to give the soot-spirits a break.

"Alright then, what do you need?" he asked loudly.

"I need a job."

"Look somewhere else," he said gruffly. "I've got all the workers I need."

"Listen, I don't necessarily want to be here, either. All I'm asking for is a job. Even a little one. Or just let me watch you work or something. I just don't fancy getting turned into an animal." He silently looked at me for a moment.

"Haku sent you here, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did."

"You remind him of her." I took a shaky breath when he mentioned Chihiro again. "He helped another human girl a while back. You remind me of her, as well. Tenacious."

"Thank you," I said. "But that still doesn't solve my problem."

"If you want a job you're going to have to see Yubaba. She's the head honcho here." Three bath tokens flung themselves down from a hole in the ceiling. "Three at once," Kamaji grumbled.

"How do I find her?" I asked.

"You'll have to go all the way to the top floor, but you can't go alone," he said. "You'll have to wait for Lin. She's the one who feeds the soot-spirits at night."

"Okay," I breathed out. "I'll just… sit here." I walked to the corner of the well nearest to the wall and sat on the ledge.

As soon as my butt hit the floor the door slid open to reveal a woman in a pink uniform with a blue apron. She wore her hair in a low ponytail, had sprite-like features, and carried a wooden basket filled with little star-shaped pellets. It had to be Lin.

"Hey, Kamaji," she said, setting a steaming bowl of food before him. "Where's the bowl from yesterday?" The boiler man handed her an identical green bowl from the other side of his perch and she placed it on a tray she carried, then knelt down to toss the pellets to the soot-spirits. Lin, bored, looked to the sides as she fed them, eyes eventually landing on me. Her face fell into an expression of shock.

"Not another one," she groaned. "I thought that report was just a rumor."

"She says she wants to work here," Kamaji said, taking a bite of what looked like vermicelli.

"That's what they all say," Lin grumbled.

"Hey!" I interjected.

"I know you miss Sen, but I'm not training another human," she said.

"You know if she doesn't work Yubaba will turn her into an animal," said Kamaji. "You don't really want her to end up like the rest of those humans tonight, do you?"

Lin glared daggers at the old man.

"You know how to tug on my heartstrings, old man," she said in a frustrated tone, then turned to me. "Come on, little girl," she cooed sarcastically.

"Time to go face the dragon," I grumbled. She stared at me for a moment.

"I think I might like you," she said before turning away and leading me out of the boiler room.

We wove through endless hallways, skillfully dodging frogs and yuna – until we reached the level overlooking the baths.

"Lin!" a frog exclaimed in passing. "You smell like a human!"

"_Fuck!_" I hissed quietly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lin said confidently. "You just miss Sen."

"I-I do not!" spluttered the frog in question.

"Really? Then why do you keep convincing yourself that you smell human? This happens more than it should, Martin." Lin had been keeping my tiny frame hidden behind her back for the duration of the conversation, but then the worst thing possible happened.

I sneezed.

The frog, Martin, looked past Lin and stared me in the face, his eyes widening to an almost comical size.

"_Human!_" he wheezed, unable to get the word out fully before he choked on it. I immediately pounced, dragging him into an unoccupied and darkened corner.

"_Look_," I growled too menacingly. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm not here to steal anyone's job. I'm not even here for money. I'm just here because my stupid family decided to eat the spirits' food, okay?" I let go of the frog's collar. "Tell no one what you have seen here. If they ask why you smell like human just say what Lin said." Martin nodded furiously and ran.

Lin looked at me, shocked.

"I really like you," she said with a laugh. Then she led me an elevator and pulled the lever on the right.

We eventually made it the top floor, which was where she left me to get back to work. Walking gingerly, and barefooted, to Yubaba's door, I used the face-shaped knocker to knock at the ornately-carved wood.

"Well, look," a gravelly voice cooed falsely from the door knocker. "If it isn't another human."

"I was told to come and see you, ma'am," I said politely. From what I remembered of the movie Yubaba prized manners.

"Well, come in," she said. I pulled on the door, only to find it wouldn't open. "It's a push door, idiot."

"Thank you for your hospitality," I murmured sarcastically and pushed the door open. Almost as soon as the door was open the front of my shirt was being yanked forward and I was pulled down a long corridor. Eventually I was pulled into a large, overly-ornate office. The pulling stopped and I fell on my face, my sweatshirt rubbing against my stomach hard enough to give me a carpet burn.

"You're more polite than the other human who came here," sighed Yubaba, "but you've still got a long way to go."

"I know, ma'am," I gritted out, hating the taste of the polite words.

"I suppose you've come to me for a job," she sighed again. I nodded once.

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

"At least you know how to be quiet." She looked up from her paperwork and studied me. "But you've got a fire in your eyes, little girl."

"So I've been told."

"See that?" she exclaimed, pounding her fists into her desk and sending papers into the air. "Your eyes just flashed. With what I don't know, but it's got to be squashed out." She came up to me, face to face. "You've got a little disobedient streak in you, don't you? I bet you never do what you're told. Well, that's not going to go over so well with me."

"I will do whatever I'm told, ma'am, as long as I can work here," I said lowly.

"You led all those other humans here, didn't you?" she snarled.

"No, ma'am."

She eyed me suspiciously.

"I don't need any more lazy bums around here, so don't think you can slack off when you get tired."

"I won't, ma'am." She was silent for a moment.

"I'll have my eye on you, little human," she said.

"I'm sure you will."

She marched back to her desk and sat in her chair, a piece of paper and pen floating from a bin and hovering before me. I took both of them in my hands.

"That's your contract," Yubaba sighed. "Sign your name away." I knelt down and rested the paper on the low marble hearth, penning my name neatly on the line and, surreptitiously, on my thumb.

The paper and pen were suddenly wrenched from my hands as they floated back to Yubaba.

"Jess?" she said as if she were testing the name on her tongue.

"Yes, ma'am." She "hmphed."

"Plain," she said. "From now on your name will be Yuka. Do you understand, Yuka?"

"Yes, ma'am," I repeated, holding my inked hand behind my back.

"Alright." She then rang a little bell on her desk. Haku entered through a side door at the sound.

"You wanted to see me, Yubaba?" he addressed the old woman.

"Yes. Please escort this young woman downstairs to receive her duties."

"Yes, ma'am," he said before turning his head to me. "What is your name?"

"Yuka," I said quickly so as not to let my real name slip out.

"Alright, Yuka. Come with me." I followed him out of Yubaba's office and into an elevator.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Haku's POV

We were silent for the entire elevator ride, plus the time it took us to descend the basement stairs. Just like at Chihiro's arrival, a horde of spirits flocked to watch as the girl descended the steps.

"We're not taking humans in the kitchen," the frog behind the podium said. "She'll get her scent all over the food!"

"We're not taking her in our department," said a yuna.

"Yubaba already has her under contract," I said. A chorus of small gasps resounded throughout the basement.

"It's the other girl," a spirit said. "Sen messed up the whole hiring order!"

"This has nothing to do with Sen!" I bellowed. It was a lie, and the girl who stood beside me seemed to know that.

"Already under contract, huh?" the frog said under his breath as he thumbed through a log book. "Didn't Lin say she was still looking for a new assistant?"

"Don't do this to me again!" Lin called from the doorway.

"You haven't had an assistant in a few years, Lin. I'm sure the help would be welcome," I said, a smirk threatening to pull at one side of my mouth. Lin growled at me.

"Just like the last time, you owe me, Haku," Lin grumbled. I looked around at the spirits who had gathered to watch the proceedings.

"Well," I said to them, "Get back to work!"

Jess's POV

Lin pulled me into a corridor and smiled at me. Somewhat smug and sarcastic, but a genuine smile nonetheless.

"I knew you could do it," she said. "You're a tough one."

"Not necessarily," I said, looking to the side and out at the sea.

"What are you talking about?" Lin laughed. "You managed to scare Martin half shitless and get a job from Yubaba!" I sighed.

"I just mean that I might not do you a lot of good," I said. "I'm not terribly fast or strong."

"That's okay. I had about as much strength as one of Kamaji's soot-spirits when I first started here, and look at me now!" She jokingly flexed a bicep, and I let out a little laugh.

"Okay," I said. "I can do this."

"Sure you can," said Lin. "Come on. Let's go get you a uniform."

That night, after the bathhouse workers had gone to sleep, I slipped out to the balcony and watched the waves roll off the sea as the day began to break.

"Whatcha doin'?" someone said from behind me.

"Lin!" I gasped, then repeated it in a laugh. "Just watching the ocean. Water seems to calm me down."

"Same," she said, sitting down beside me and dangling her legs off the balcony. "So how exactly did you get here?"

I laughed humorlessly.

"My parents decided to take a guided tour of rural Japan," I said. "The tour guide led them down to the restaurants, along with all the other tourists in the group, and told them to eat up."

"Why didn't you eat anything? I thought humans always jumped at the prospect of free food." I smiled slightly.

"There was this tingling in the air," I said. "It just felt… weird, like there was electricity all around me."

Lin stopped swinging her legs from the balcony.

"Normal humans can't feel that, Yuka," she said.

"I assumed as much." I rested my head on the balcony railing. "When I asked a deity for an adventure this was not what I had in mind."

"Adventures are never what we have in mind," Lin stated sagely, looking out at the sea. "They have to take us by surprise. That's what makes them adventures."

I looked back out at the ocean, watching as the moon-blue water slowly turned over on itself in a flood of foam.

"That was really wise, Lin." The spirit looked back at me and smiled.

"Come on, Yuka," she said, standing up and pulling me with her. "You need some sleep." I wholeheartedly agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Jess's POV

It must have been around noon when he came into the girls' quarters.

"Meet me at the bridge," he said, laying a light hand on my shoulder. I nodded almost imperceptibly as he left. The moment the door was closed I ran down the stairs to the boiler room.

Kamaji lay unconscious on his perch, snoring loudly. I smiled slightly at the old man before finding my shoes and running for the door.

When I reached the bridge I found Haku waiting for me. I trotted over to him.

"Let's go," he said. Turning abruptly from me, he led me down that flowered path until we reached a steep hill overlooking a row of livestock barns. I inhaled sharply.

"This is where they are, isn't it?" I asked quietly. He looked back at me and nodded.

"This is where the group is, including your parents."

The barn was far emptier than it had been in the movie, with several empty pens interspersed between sparsely-populated ones. Haku led me down a long line of stalls until we reached a specific pen. This pen was far larger than the others, housing thirteen pink pigs.

"These are-" I stopped myself and took a steadying breath. "These are all the people from the tour group."

"All but one," Haku said. "You said there were fourteen people."

"Yeah, including the-" I gasped. "_Including the tour guide_."

"I was thinking the same thing," he said.

"The tour guide was a spirit." I turned my head away from my parents' pen to look Haku in the eyes. "Do you think she led these people here as some kind of harvest?"

He nodded grimly.

"There has been a strangely high infertility rate among the pigs this year, so it's not unreasonable to think a spirit might take it upon themselves to bring in humans to replenish the population."

I suppressed a hiccupped sob and covered my mouth.

"I can't believe this," I said, looking away. "This is disgusting."

"Do you need to leave?"

I nodded.

"I think I might"

"Okay."

He led me back to the flowered path and watched as I found a tree stump to rest on. Sitting down, I placed my head between my knees to ward off a panic attack. Haku knelt down beside me and pulled a package from inside his shirt.

"Are those rice balls?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"You gave those to Chihiro, right?"

"Yeah," he repeated. I looked over at him. "You're not crying."

"Astute observation," I quipped. He smiled somewhat. "Were you expecting me to cry?"

"A bit. Most humans who wander here are upset by it." He handed me a rice ball and I accepted it, taking it into my hand and taking a bite. It was bland, but it was food.

When I swallowed I continued the conversation.

"I just hate the human world," I admitted. "It's so dull and… full of morons." I took another bite.

"And this world?"

I swallowed.

"I'm sure it's got its fair share of idiots," I said. Haku chuckled in return, deep and sonorous. "But it's… vibrant. It's got life."

"That's a bit ironic," he observed. It was my turn to laugh.

"A little bit, yeah. But – I mean – look at this." I pointed to a flower that grew on the hedge behind me. "We don't even _have _that color in the human world. I thought I was having some kind of acid trip when I first saw it."

"What's an acid trip?" I couldn't contain my snickers.

"It doesn't matter. The point is, even though I was terrified to be here – not to mention incredibly pissed with my family for taking that stupid tour – I'm starting to realize that… there was so much I was missing. So much action, so much _life_."

He nodded once and handed me another rice ball.

"So you don't miss your parents?"

"Of course I do. They're the only family I have." I chewed a bite of the second rice ball. "But… I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd like it here if I knew my family was safe."

"I understand."

"Good, because I'm pretty bad at explaining things." I finished another rice ball and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"There are only a few hours before you have to get up for work," Haku said standing up. "You should get some sleep."

He offered his hand to me, but I just looked down and helped myself up.

"Thank you," I said. "For everything. I don't know how I'll ever be able to pay you back."

"You don't have to," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. I instinctively flinched away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said too quickly. "I just don't like being touched all that much."

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

Standing there silently for a few moments I had time to assess his appearance. He looked to be about seventeen now, his black-green hair tied back in a ponytail that reached the middle of his back. He still wore the traditional Japanese clothing that had been depicted in the movie, though he was now much taller and far more muscular. His face was less pale, teeth more white, and he looked, overall, healthier. The only things that bothered me were his eyes: they were dull and hardened, as if someone had sucked the life from them.

"I'll take you back to the bathhouse," he said, taking me by the wrist and immediately dropping it. "Sorry." I smiled grimly.

"It's okay."

When we arrived at the bridge he turned over his shoulder to look at me.

"I assume you know I'm a dragon," he said. I nodded.

"You're the spirit of the Kohaku River."

"I just didn't want to scare you when I transform."

"I don't think you could." The side of his mouth pulled up into a sly smirk.

"Is that a bet?" My smirk matched his.

"Bring it, dragon boy."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Jess's POV

I was shaken awake that evening by a small pale hand.

"Five more minutes…" I groaned before rolling over.

"There'll be none of that in Yubaba's bathhouse," Lin's voice broke over the din of rustling bedding. It was then that I remembered where I was – the Spirit World.

I jumped out of my bed roll and folded it, quickly slipping off my jeans and pulling on the uniform pants (I surreptitiously slid my pocket knife into the pants' pocket). But when it came to the shirt I was more than hesitant to remove it.

"Uh, Lin?" I said. I got a "hm" in response. "Is there somewhere I could change?"

"Just change out here. You've already got your pants on, and we've all seen boobs here."

"I'm not – uh – comfortable changing in front of other people. At all."

Lin sighed but pointed to a door beside the main sliding ones.

"Just use the bathroom there. Just don't take too long."

"Sure thing."

I dashed into the bathroom and stripped my sweatshirt from my body, quickly slipping on the new uniform top and glancing at myself in the mirror.

_Shit_.

The sleeves didn't even come close to covering my forearms, which were littered with tiny dash-scars. I knocked on the bathroom door.

"Lin?" I called.

"What do you want?"

"Is this everything to the uniform? Just the top and the pants?"

"And the apron!" I quickly tied the discarded apron around my waist.

"No! I mean is there anything to cover the arms?"

"You'll be fine! Just get out here!"

Hesitantly I stepped from the bathroom, anxiously concealing my arms from view. Lin immediately saw me and grabbed me by the elbow, smiling.

"Come on, you dope! There's only thirty minutes before the bathhouse opens!" she said. She yanked my arm hard enough to pull my arm from behind my back. "I don't know why you're so self-conscious. Your arms are-" She stopped upon noticing the little marks on my wrists. "What happened to you, Yuka?"

I immediately pulled my arm from her grasp and looked away.

"I lost a fight to a rosebush in my youth," I said. Lin looked at me suspiciously, but didn't question me any more on the subject.

She guided me down to the bath level and set me before the foreman.

"This is Yuka," she told him sternly. "She is my assistant and you are to treat her as such." Lin then spoke to me. "If he gives you hell you call me. We need an herbal soak token. I'm gonna go get us some breakfast."

"You do that," I said.

The foreman eyed me distrustfully.

"I need an herbal soak token," I told him evenly.

"No way, human," he spat. "I don't care if Lin gets mad at me. You'll get your stench all over the tokens."

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then stared down the foreman with a hard jaw.

"Look," I said sternly. "I don't necessarily want me to be here, either. But the longer you withhold that token from me the longer my job is going to take and the longer I stay here."

He glared at me, then swiped a token from the token rack and plunked it forcefully into my hand.

"Just take the damn token and get out of my sight," he grumbled, writing something in his log book.

Lin came back with our breakfasts and led me to the tub we would be cleaning, a small one near the back corner of the bathhouse. We ate our rice – Lin laughed at my gross inability to use chopsticks – and set to work.

The bath may have been small, but it was disgusting: various kinds of dirt and grass littered the floor and the tub itself was coated with a thick layer of green-brown grime. I almost heaved at the stench the sludge gave off.

"When was the last time this thing was cleaned?" I groaned through a hand I held over my nose.

"Probably a month or so," Lin muttered. "Those bastards. They always give me the hard jobs."

"I'm fairly sure I had something to do with it," I said regretfully.

"Did you threaten the foreman or something?"

"Something like that."

"Then it's worth it. I've been wanting to do that for years." She tied a handkerchief around her nose and mouth. "You've got guts, kid."

"Thanks. Now let's get this over with."

"Absolutely."

We both climbed into the tub and began to scrub away at the grime caked to the sides. It was no use; it was so thick I could have cut it with my knife.

_My knife_.

"Hold on, Lin," I said. "I think I may have a solution."

"If it involves soaking the grime off don't bother. This stuff's got so much salt in it water can't even penetrate it."

"Water may not be able to penetrate it," I said, grabbing my knife from my pocket and flicking it open, "but this can."

"Yuka! What are you doing?"

I gingerly stuck the knife into the grime and pulled it to the side; it cut like butter. I grinned.

"Getting this shit out of the tub."

I ran the blade along the rim of the tub and then down the sides, eventually creating a little network of slices that resembled a pizza. A really disgusting pizza.

"Alright, now start pulling at one of the ends," I told Lin. Smiling incredulously at me, she did as I asked.

"How did you think of this?" she asked as the grime came off in one cakey sheet.

"Not sure," I grunted, pulling at a particularly caked-on place. "Just came to me."

"Well, this is sure gonna speed up the process." She pulled up another slice of muck and threw it out of the tub. "Good luck explaining this to the others, though."

"I think I'm going to need more luck explaining why I had a knife in my pocket."

We pulled all of the grime sheets into the trash cart and started scrubbing the floor. Within thirty minutes the place sparkled it was so clean. Lin and I wordlessly high-fived, the impact making my bicep ache. She laughed at my grimace and patted me on the shoulder proudly.

"You did fine. I'm sure you'll do even better when there's a customer," she told me.

"What do we do when there's a customer?" I asked. She looked at me strangely, like she couldn't believe I didn't know what to do.

"I keep forgetting you're new," she said. "Basically, when there's a customer, let them soak for a few minutes, and then start scrubbing at their hands and anywhere else they want cleaned."

"Okay," I breathed. "I just hope there aren't any really pervy characters coming in tonight." Lin laughed loudly and clapped me on the back.

"Even if there are, there's a bright side to that."

"What?"

"You'll get some pretty big tips."

"Oh, that's exactly why I'm working here," I said sarcastically. She smiled at me before her name was called.

"What?" she called back.

"You've got a customer on the way!" someone's voice yelled.

"Okay!"

"Customer?" I asked. She nodded.

"Let's get down to business."


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Jess's POV

It was weird.

That was the only word I could use to describe it: weird. It was like stepping through a rift in space and time to ancient Japan while simultaneously experiencing those weird thumping pangs of sentimentality you feel when you see pictures from your childhood. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant – it was actually fairly pleasant, to tell the truth – but it was just… weird.

The weirdest part of the whole experience had to be working at the bathhouse. The customers were weird, from radish spirits to huge chickens; the employees were weird (and rude); Yubaba was weird; and the requests which some customers made… were weird.

"He says to make sure to scrub his back dimples," Lin yelled over the sound of steam so pervasive in the bathhouse's ground floor. I internally grimaced but politely asked the customer – a radish spirit – to sit up a bit so I could reach his back. Scrubbing gently at the creases of skin, my brush was suddenly coated with a crust of white substance. I suddenly realized it was dead skin. Did spirits not bathe themselves regularly? Scraping the dead skin from the brush and into a designated sludge bucket – it was weird enough that there _were_ designated sludge buckets – I went back to scrubbing in between the spirit's back folds.

It had been a week. A whole week since my parents and the rest of the group had been turned into pigs, and I had done basically nothing. Sure, I had earned my keep in the Spirit World, but I was doing nothing to help my family. The only thing I could think to do was talk to Yubaba, but I could tell that neither her nor I were going to have that shit any time soon. I was determined to fix this myself – without following in Chihiro's footsteps.

And now, scrubbing the dead skin from the fat rolls of a radish spirit, I wondered why exactly that was.

"He says to scrub harder!" called Lin as she ran a brush under his nails. I blew a stray lock of hair from my face and obeyed.

_I could ask Haku what to do for my parents_, I thought, then completely dismissed the idea. Haku had better things to do than help a little human girl find her way home. There was no guarantee that he would even know what to do. The only thing he might really be able to help me with was-

The tour guide.

If I found the tour guide I could-

"Yuka! He says that's too hard!" Lin's voice broke through my thoughts. I immediately looked down to see that I had rubbed a sore on the poor spirit's back.

"I'm so sorry, sir!" I squeaked, thinking back to my scanty medical training. But that wouldn't work on spirits, would it?

Unconsciously my hand had drifted down to the sore and touched it. Immediately I felt something rush out of me. My breathing faltered, then came out all at once. Collapsing onto my side, I felt as if someone had forced me to run laps all day.

"Yuka! Are you okay?" cried Lin. I shook my head "no" as an answer.

Mere moments later I felt her hands on me, checking me for injuries.

"Yuka!"

I winced. Her voice was so loud, the room so bright.

"Not so loud," I groaned. "I feel like I have a massive hangover."

Lin apologized to the customer and picked me up, carrying me up steps. I closed my eyes and blacked out.

When I awoke I was lying on a bed roll in the girls' sleeping quarters with a mass of spirits crowding over me.

"Is she okay?"

"Why do you care about the human?"

"What happened?"

The light was too bright overhead, the noise was too much, and I felt like my head was going to explode. That was until I heard another voice break over the din of the spirits.

"Everybody out!" Haku's voice commanded. The rumble of feet told me that they were following his orders. "Except for you, Lin."

"O-okay."

Haku's footsteps walked gently in my direction until I could see their owner kneeling before me. I could barely keep my eyes open.

"Just close your eyes," he said gently, sweeping a piece of hair from my forehead. I obeyed, then heard him speaking softly to Lin. "What happened to her?"

"I'm not all that sure," she replied. "We were attending to a customer and she just collapsed."

"What was she doing at the time?"

"She had just rubbed a sore on the customer's back while scrubbing him-"

"Did she touch the wound?" he asked suddenly.

"I'm not sure. She could have." A long sigh followed the statement.

"I'm taking her to see Kamaji," he said. I felt him pick me up, and I blacked out again.

When I woke once again I was in the boiler room, laid out on a bed roll with a throbbing head.

"Looks like someone's awake," a scratchy voice said from out of my field of vision.

"Hey, Kamaji," I said as I tried and failed to sit up.

"Don't sit up, Yuka," he told me. I obeyed, flopping back down on the bed roll like a fish.

"Where's Haku?" I asked groggily. Everything was still blurry.

"He got called up to Yubaba's apartment. He asked me to take a look at you."

"What needs to be looked at?"

"Your spirit," he said. He stepped off his dais and came to me, his spidery arms taking the place of his underdeveloped legs. "He's asked me to take a look at your spirit."

"O-okay."

He sat at my side and took my arm in his hand, gently turning it to face up. His hand suddenly steadied. I felt his eyes rake up and down my arm, scrutinizing the multitude of scars marring the skin there.

"How did you get these scars?" he asked. I swallowed.

"There are thorny trees in the human world. I fell out of one as I child." He eyed me suspiciously, but let the matter go.

Getting back to Haku's request, he passed his hand over my open palm. Immediately my hand was engulfed in a tingling sensation. Looking to where he held my hand I saw a small orange flickering ball emerging from my palm, emitting a small amount of golden light.

"What the hell?"

"As I suspected," Kamaji said. "You're not human."

"What the hell?" I repeated. He let out a long scratchy sigh.

"Some spirits are reincarnated," he began. "It doesn't happen very often, but it still happens. Whenever it does happen it's usually a powerless spirit, like Lin. But sometimes," he crept slightly closer to me, "the spirit is especially powerful. Powerful enough that, if transferred into a human vessel, some of its powers would be transferred as well."

"So that means-"

"You have an incredibly powerful spirit, Yuka."

We were silent for a few moments.

"That explains why I could feel this place," I murmured. "And why I could heal the radish spirit."

"Accelerated healing, heh?" Kamaji muttered as he rubbed his chin in thought. "That's a rare one. I don't think I've ever heard of one with accelerated healing."

"Great," I groaned, covering my eyes with the ends of my palms. "Just when I thought I couldn't be more of a freak."

"Aren't you a bit excited, Yuka?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, yes… But I feel like this is going to alienate me from the spirits even more."

"It might," he conceded. "But don't you think this might give you the confidence to get through it?"

I sighed.

"Just… don't tell anybody. I guess you can tell Haku, and maybe Yubaba, but none of the employees."

"Alright," he sighed in defeat. "I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you, Kamaji," I said, lying back down on the bed roll as my head started to spin. I covered my eyes with my hands. "Any idea how long I'll be dizzy?"

"Maybe a few more minutes. You'll have to rest the rest of the day, but you should be fine tomorrow."

"Good to know," I groaned.

"Maybe you should get some more sleep, Yuka," he told me.

"Absolutely." He chuckled at me and went back to his station, somehow managing to fill three water orders at once while I fell back into the realm of sleep.

Haku's POV

"A Reincarnate?" I asked quietly but incredulously. "Are you sure?"

"Isn't that what you suspected? I thought you brought her down here-"

"Are you _sure_, Kamaji?" I asked again. He nodded with a grunt.

"I'm sure. With my Spirit Vision she lit up like a fire," he said. I nodded tersely. "Haku, what does this mean for her?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "But she needs to learn to control her abilities or she's going to pass out every time she touches a scab."

I held my chin in my hand as I sat on the boiler room floor. Yuka still lay on the bed roll on the other side of the room, one arm thrown haphazardly across her eyes as she was enveloped in a chorus of soft snores.

"What if you taught her?"

"What?" I said.

"Think about it," the boiler man said. "All abilities are basically the same; the magic just manifests itself in different ways. So you two possess the same ability, you just primarily focus on wind and her on healing. If you could teach her to control the magic she has within her the way you can control yours-"

"I understand," I said. "I just don't know if it's such a good idea. It could interfere with her duties at the bathhouse and violate her contract."

"Not if you were to train her during the day."

I rubbed my chin with my thumb.

"I'll think about it," I said, standing up. "I need to get to Yubaba's. Thank you for taking care of her."

"It's no trouble at all. All she's doing is sleeping."

I let the corner of my mouth slip into a slight smile before I quashed it and left.


End file.
